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i 2 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, April 22, 1981 Section Two Editorial Comment They've Come a Long Way ) It still rankles a little to learn the hard way that our top-rated hockey players aren't really superior to those in several European countries. The shock connected with such a discovery has worn off a little in recent years, but the resentment is still there; after all, hockey and Canada go together like apple pie and cheese and we take the game quite seriously. At the moment, a team of professionals from the NHL squads eliminated from the playoffs is having quite a difficult time overseas in the World Cup Championship. Team Canada has already been defeated by the Soviets, the Czechs and Swedes and is probably heading for the cellar in the final standings. Admittedly, they haven't played together for long so some lack of coordination is to be expected, but We've been led to expect that they should still be able to give a good account of themselves in any league here or there. We can't even excuse their defeats because they aren't in good condition physically. After all, they've just finished a long season and should be at the top of their form. The basic fact remains that the Europeans have adopted the game we love so much and have refined it considerably to the point where their skating, passing and shooting is not only on a par with our best, but often is better and smoother. A few years ago we could intimidate them with heavy bodychecking and rough play in the corners, but now they can even beat us at that game too. Frankly, if we are planning to compete in that kind of operation, npet we'd better do something to improve our mastery of the game's fundamentals. And that has to start at the lowest level and work its way up to the top gradually. Otherwise, we might just as well stay home and save the embarrassment, it's humiliating. We Don't Need One By the time this item gets into print, we hope Newcastle council will have concluded its budget talks and will not be tempted to follow Whitby's example by spending another $18,000 to install a super sound system in its chambers. If the news reports are correct, and we have no reason to believe they aren't, Whitby's mayor and councillors will soon each have a microphone that will relay their pearls of wisdom loud and clear to anyone in the hall. A separate console will also be installed to control the volume and possibly E revent any councillor who doesn't ave the floor from interrupting the selected orator of the moment. It all sounds quite posh and we can see some merit in the proposal, especially for councillors who speak in a low voice or mutter so much that it's difficult for reporters or citizens at the meeting to near exactly what was said. But, Whitby's hall must be larger than the one here because we have heard few complaints from citizens about not being able to hear. Rather, it's what has been said and done that has now and then brought caustic comment. So, let's not get carried away and decide that we should be just as well equipped as the Town of Whitby. We ' can use the $18,000 for something else that has a higher priority. Of course this could change if and when it becomes necessary to have simultaneous translations into French, but that appears to be a long way off unless the new Canadian constitution and charter of rights should be passed and stipulate that all civic business in the country must be conducted in the two official languages of Canada. So far though, we seem to be in the clear in that respect. We also noted in another report that Whitby's mayor, Bob Attersley, had a stone removed from his gall bladder on Saturday and expects to be back to work in about a week. As we recall, Mayor Attersley was a member of the World Champion Whitby Dunlops a few years ago and possibly what he thought was pain from a gall stone, was really reaction to Team Canada's performance overseas. The Moment of Truth Thank goodness the annual discussions of public spending are almost over. Educational budgets and regional government budgets are now established and Newcastle council is applying the finishing touches to its expenditure program as this is being written. • The taxpayer can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that even if taxes are going up (and what isn't?) at least this year's mill rate is not an unknown factor. We note that the smoothest approval of a public budget occurred at a meeting of the Northumberland and Newcastle Board of Education last week. If only all budgets could have such an easy debut. There are, no doubt, many municipal politicians who would wish for a similar approval of the budget. The budget was approved with no muss or fuss at a board of education meeting, having been discussed for not more than a month at the committee level. There was no grandstanding for the benefit of the press, no last- minute pleas for money. You had the impression that the board of education knew what it needed and exactly what had to be done. When regional government approved its budget last week, there was a little less accord. A last- minute grant from the Province of Ontario materialized, and thanks to this allocation, no municipality will have a tax increase of more than 14.9 per cent this year. That's high, of course, but considerably less than the 20 per cent estimates which were being kicked around at the start of regional budget talks. Funds from the provincial government to help ease the tax load are becoming a regular occurrence. Last year, the Region received in excess of $600,000. This appears to be something which may become a regular tradition -- something like the annual return of the Canada Geese. Of course, this talk about the budget leads us to our home municipality of Newcastle where the budget is almost finished, but not quite ready for the final stamp of council approval. Nevertheless, it appears that when all is said and done, the mill rate increase will be approximately six per cent over last year, although actual spending will be considerably higher. It all depends how you look at it. The good thing about the town's budget is the fact that it has been thoroughly mulled over and discussed in detail. This is why it is a month behind schedule. The bad thing about the budget is the fact that it tends to be too much of ? political document and not enough of a financial document. ®tje Canadian Statesman 623-3303 (JSna Durham County's Great Family Journal tatabllihed 127 years ago in 1854 Alio Incorporating TheBowmanvIlla News The Newcastle Independent ( The Orono News Second class mall registration number 1561 Produced every Wednesday by THE JAMES PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED 62-66 King St. W., Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3K9 v la JOHN M. JAMES Editor -- Publisher RICHARD A. JAMES Assistant Publisher GEO. P. MORRIS Business Mgr. BRIAN PURDY Advertising Mgr! DONALD BISHOP Plant Mgr. All layout» and compoalllon ol advertlaemenla produced by the employees ol The Canadian Statesman, The Newcastle Independent and The Jama» Publishing Company Limited are protected by copyright mid must not be reproduced without written permleelon ol the publishers. $10.00 a year -- 6 months $5.50 strictly In advance foreign -- $71.00 a year Although every precaution will be taken to avoid error, The Canadian Statesman accepts advertising In Ils columns on the understanding that It will not be liable lor any error In flic advertisement published hereunder unless a proof ol such advertisement Is requested In writing by the advertiser and returned lo The Canadian Statesman business office duly signed by the advertiser and with such error or corrections plainly noled In writing thereon, and In that case II any error so noted Is not corrected by The Canadian Statesman Ils liability shall not exceed such a portion ol the entire cost ol such advertisement as the space occupied by the noted error hears to the whole space occupied by such advertisement, Wilmot Creek Photo by G. Kapuscinski SUGAR and SPICE This is being written on the eve of the provincial election in Ontario, but it could be the ève of any election in any province in this far-flung dominion. Going up against the incumbent government rfesembles very much a" promising heavyweight fighter going up against the world champion. He has to knock the champ out, or make him look so foolish that even the judges have to award the challenger the title. If it's anywhere near close, the champ wins. How does this apply to provincial politics? Well, in the first place, the party in power has its fingers in a stranglehold on the public purse. This means that it can run an overwhelming advertising campaign, conduct its own slanted polls, and throw grants and patronage in all directions, especially when a seat is in danger. Every nickel of this vast wastage comes out of your pocket and mine. A provincial election costs you and me anywhere from ten to a hundred million dollars, most of it disguised in the form of government information, government announcements of ten million here, two million there, eight million elsewhere, and so on. It means that the government, fighting a supposedly democratic election, is in with both hands to public money, scattering it wherever it might glean votes, regardless of the provincial debt, regardless of us, who are putting up the bucks. It means that the government can cynically hire clever people to write y^Stoeeches, brilliant people to plan ' glossy ad campaigns, brutal people to twist arms and remind of past I favors, and opportunists to denigrate the opposition parties. ' The latter, without access to our money, can fight only with what they ! have, and it's an uphill battle. They can't afford the opulent advertising, the sybaritic syocphancy of a venal press, the bus or the plane with the free bar, the free buses to pack nomination meetings. But, lo, all is not lost. People are not sheep; not quite. Every so often, a slick, glossy government campaign goes down the drain, as , The People suddenly demand to ; know what the hell the government stands for, besides motherhood, : prosperity, and a turkey in every i seat in the legislature, j It happened in B.C., when Dave ! Barrett knocked out the right-wing government of Wacky Bennett. And ! in Manitoba, when right-wing Sterling Lyon knocked out the left- wing NDP. It happened in Quebec, when the PQ knocked off the smooth Liberal organization, riddled with patronage and corruption and fear. And it happened before that in Quebec when the Liberals, before they became rich and slick, bumped the Duplessis, right-wing Union Nationale, now a mere shadow on the Quebec horizon. Being of Irish extraction, I always, without fail, vote against the government. By the time this appears in print, the Tories in Ontario, who have a menage a trois with the NDP fédérais and the Liberal government in Ottawa (doesn't that boggle the mind?) will likely have formed another minority government. How could they be defeated, with all that money, and a leader who epitomizes all the small-town, small-minded attitudes of traditional Tory Ontario? But I'm in a quandary. Out on my front lawn is a sign, urging people to vote NDP. My wife, in a weak moment, allowed a friend to talk her into installing it, with my urging. I can't vote Tory, because I detest and despise a government that has allowed Ontario to become a second- rate province, despite its enormous resources, and because I resent the manner in which the Tory leader, a fairly mediocre politician who squeaked into the leadership by about the same margin as Joe Clark, and only because the Northern Ontario voters had to get home by bus, rail and plane, and couldn't vote in the last ballot, and who chooses to scatter my money wherever it will buy a vote. Why not vote, then, for the NDP man, a good man, a man of intellect and integrity? Because, while he is a good man, and would make an excellent representative, his party can't win. Thus, I'm going to vote Liberal, even though I don't know a thing about the Liberal candidate, except what I hear. As a result, I will be drummed out of the teachers' union, which has urged all teachers to vote against the Liberals. Why? Because the Liberals have chosen education as one of their sacred cows to attack. And not a bad choice. The public, as well as many teachers, is fed up to the ears with the present educational system. Include me in. I think.the system, which by the way was architectured by the present provincial premier when he was Minister of Education, neither knows where it has been nor where it is going. It is full of brilliant young people with new ideas, old fogies who fight the new ideas at every turn, and middle-aged nyerps who can't see past salaries and pensions. Bury me not on the lone praire. Bury me instead under a heap of frustrated young people who are getting neither an adequate education for a job, nor an adequate education for life with a capital L. to Solleftea, Sweden April 5th, 1981 Dear Mrs. Fairey: Well here I am again. I know you didn't ask me to write twice but my mom wrote me and told me people are still telling her they read my first letter in the Statesman and when will I be writing again? It's a good way for me to contact all the people I should write but suddenly don't have time for. Looking at my Miss Piggy calendar, it's already April. Tomorrow means I've been here eight months. I remember writing you after my first four months and thinking that was such a long time, I had a very nice Christmas here, It was really interesting. I went to church early in the morning by horse and sleigh carrying lighted torches. I got some beautiful gifts to help me remember this year, I never did make it to Stockholm in December but I had a week's training with my ski team and. I really learned a lot. .January I started my racing career. My first race being giant slalom, 1 don't think I've ever been so nervous in my life. We were at quite a large ski resort and it started to storm. I wasn't even sure which poles to go around. But amazingly enough I made it down the hill and I just remember the finish line. Out of 49 girls, 36 made it down, with me being the 36th. 1 was nervous for the first race but the butterflies doubled for the second. This time I was on the world cup slope which was very steep and icy. Girls from the national team were there and I was feeling extremely minute. But luck was with me and I made it to the finish. It was a very difficult course and only 27 out of the 59 girls made it down and you can guess who the 27th was, Also in January I had a friend from Canada visit me. He is also living in Sweden at the moment as an exchange student. It was so nice seeing a familiar face and we never van out of things to say. January quickly ran into February with cold weather and mostly skiing and volleyball, with the odd race. They had two races just for my district in Sweden and only three girls in my age group showed up. I completed the courses both times and ended up with two bronze medallions, I really haven't raced much since. In February, I had a week in a place called Borlange which means, "live long." I had a working week there with a newspaper and had a great time, I understand now it's not that easy. I got to go out with all the journalists and photographers on their calls. I felt very official with my press pass but didn't get to write an article myself though; the main reason being I can't spell in Swedish, I got to help when it came to putting the paper together and I was amazed by the printing presses., The first week in March I went to a cottage in the mountains near Norway, I was with an exchange student from Italy who has moved to Solleftea and we've become good friends. It's strange hearing a girl from Italy and one from Canada speaking Swedish to each other. We had a great week in the mountains and skied every day. The King also has a cottage there and the entire Royal family was there the same week as I was. We were going around one of the trails one day when a man in sunglasses sailed by. It was the King out with his dog Charlie and a bodyguard. Following that week, there was another ski week with 50 other exchange students from the U.S. and Canada. So many Swedes think Canada and the States are the same country. Canada seems to be somewhat of a mystery country to Swedes because they never hear anything about it. I think we've been influenced a little i./u much by the U.S. and really don't have an identity of our own. Settling back into school wasn't easy and then I goi tin.. chicken pox. The next two weeks were spent in bed. Believe me, it's no fun being sick away from home. I missed you Mom! Yesterday was my first day out and now it's Spring here, It's just beautiful. There's still lots of snow hut it's melting fast. Lots of sun and it's daylight until «most 9:0(1 p.m, They say in June and July it never gets dark. We're still skiing but grass and stones are beginning to show through. I have a very good future ahead of me. I'm going to Stockholm this week to stay for seven days. It's Sweden's capital city. Hie last of April and first of May there are big celebrations there to welcome Spring. On the May 11th my Latin class is heading for Rome. Now with my Italian friend, I've got connections there and I'm going through a crash course in Italian but it tends to get mixed up with Swedish. I find the time is just going too fast. I'm getting along so well here now with all my friends and the people of the town. I've finally broken through all of the ice. Actually I think the Swedish people come to life in the Spring and are a lot happier. After my week in Rome I just have a few weeks left until school finishes on June 12th, Soon after that I head south with my host family to their summer cottage to celebrate mid-summer. Directly after, I head out to sec the rest of Europe with a few friends and I'm also visiting Charlotte a' Campo, in Holland who was Bowmanville's Rotary exchange student last year. On July 4th I meet my sister in Amsterdam. I haven't seen her for over a year now and just can't wait. After a bit of inter-railing in Europe we come back up to Solleftea. I'm planning on flying home around the end of July. I just can't believe how fast the time has gone and how much I've learned not only about another land and culture but about myself and my own country. I only have my parents to thank for making all of this possible. I know I can never repay them for everything. I love you Mom and Dadl I have such mixed emotions now. I really want to come home but leaving here is going to be so hard. I've really grown close to some people and things which will never be the same when I come hack. Happy Easter everybody I Krain (love) Jill Hockin Rotary Exchange Student in Sweden